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Plato (Ancient Philosophical Influences), image - Coggle Diagram
Plato (Ancient Philosophical Influences)
Plato is a rationalist who says that sense experience fails to provide us with any guarantee that what we experience is true
Plato believed that everything in this world changes therefore there must be a world where things are unchanging (logic of opposites).
Realm of the Forms
The Forms
There are many types of beauty in this world but they must all conform to the idea of what beauty is.
However there must be an underlying idea of what beauty is (
Form of Beauty
) which is the Form of a Beauty which exists in the Realm of Forms according to Plato.
Plato says that the
particulars
(e.g. a particular beautiful person) are imperfect copies of the Forms.
Particulars participate in the form and some things participate to a greater or lesser extent.
Form
= perfect expression of something that never changes.
Sense experience creates illusions and humans believe these illusions (ignorance).
Episteme = achieved true knowledge of Forms
Qualities of the Realm of Forms
One and only original example
More real (than the shadow we experience)
Perfect/ an Ideal
External fixed truths which are absolutely true for all time, people and places
Unchanging
- it is a concept not physical as physical ideas of things die and change.
The Form is not a shape but the essence of a object.
The reason why we experience things in our world.
Qualities of our world
Only a shadow or echo of the real true Form.
Everything in this world conforms to the Form
Constantly changes, evolves, dying (imperfect)
Objects in this world only imitate the Forms, so a beautiful person is an imitation of the Form of Beauty
Plato calls things in this world
particulars
which are imperfect copies of the Forms.
Everything participates in the Form.
Plato's Ultimate Form
Because there are so many Forms then there must be a
Form of the Forms
The Form of the Good is the Form of all the other Forms because
everything has GOODNESS in it.
You cannot describe beauty, justice, truth without mentioning 'goodness'.
All perfection flows down from the Form of the Good
Source
/Reason for all other forms
Just as the sun in the allegory of the cave gives light to the real world, so the Form of the Good
illuminates
the other forms.
It enables our souls to 'see' the Forms
It is the ultimate end in itself: the aim of everything is goodness
Understanding of Reality
We are born with dim recollection of the Forms and our immortal soul experiences them when in the ROF before being reincarnated
(Metempsychosis)
Plato is opposed to using the senses (empiricism) as these cloud our judgement and understanding.
A philosopher can escape the world of appearances and with their reason see the Forms that lie behind the appearances (true leaders of society)
In the physical body, which is ruled by senses, the memory is only dim.
Plato believed that because people know the basics of truth, justice and beauty without being taught, this is the soul's recollection of truth (Forms) using reason.
We do not learn new things instead education is a matter of remembering and recalling the Realm of the Forms
Anamnesis
= the soul remembering the Forms back in a physical body
Analogy of the Cave
Aim - to help us understand our position in the realm of appearances and the importance of gaining an understanding of the truth.
Evaluation
I think the idea of there being a perfect world beside our own is possible, however I believe that perfection can’t exist because we don’t know what it looks like so how can we say that Plato’s idea of the form of good is the perfect world. So it does make sense however I question how do we know that everything within Plato’s world is perfect. Nothing is perfect and everything has flaws.
Aristotle's Third Man Argument
- There needs to be an infinite regress of forms to explain another form, therefore contradicting the idea of oneness of the form
Aristotle
argues that there is no single Form of the Good as good is the fulfilment of something's telos and differs for each object
e.g. Goodness for a projector is that is projects clearly, for a builder he builds well.
